Have you tried using Telnet to chat on IRC? Of course, you'll have to be familiar with the IRC protocol (RFC 1459). So I'm a techno-geek, sue me. I've also been using Telnet to check my POP mail; I've also been playing around with Telnet to connect to various 'Net daemons (such as my ISP's smtpd. It's interesting what you discover when trying out Telnet, you know.
Previously: Ports in a storm